Gemma Spake

This inability to look around and be like, hey, like I'm where I always wanted to be.

I'm really proud of that.

I'm so proud of how far I've come.

Taylor Swift is a great example, literally the most famous person in the world.

And I know if you've watched her documentary, I'm sure many of you have, but the one from a few years ago, I think it was called Miss Americana.

There is this scene in that documentary that I think about all of the time, constantly.

It's the scene where she's waiting to hear about Grammy nominations and she's like,

Just written her album, Lover.

This woman has already won, at that point, I think a dozen Grammys.

And her publicist is like, no, you didn't win any.

You didn't even get nominated, actually.

And you can see she's just like crushed.

She's crushed.

And I distinctly remember her being like, well, I just have to be better.

I have to make a better album.

I have to push myself more.

And it doesn't look like at that time, that was an enjoyable thing for her.

Like obviously now, and she did, she did obviously meet that new level, but being exceptional can become a bit of a curse because your worth is dependent on your ability to outperform yourself.

I think when we begin to recognize this loop, that nothing is ever enough, we will never be as good as a version of us that doesn't exist or a version of other people that doesn't exist.

I think that actually kills our motivation in a way, because we're kind of like, why bother?